Tag Archives: pets

Work today started off being extremely quiet. Did a few x-rays of a labrador with OCD in both shoulders. Spent a lot of time playing with the kittens. Then I mentioned to Todd that it was quiet. Shouldn’t have done that. Hell broke loose soon afterwards. I had client come in who wanted to debate the drugs that Catriona had left for her to pick up. Whilst, I was trying to work out exactly what she wanted a lady walked in with a dog in her arms and sat down. I must admit that I didn’t take much notice of her. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes later when she approached the counter, that I noticed that the dog she had in her arms was covered in blood. The dog, a little Maltese, had been attacked by a “larger dog”. I am not certain what kind of dog as the lady’s English wasn’t too great. Got the dog rushed out the back and stablised. I returned out the front to be accosted by a lady with a notepad demanding the name of the lady who just went out the back with the injured dog. She wanted to complain about the dog that had just been attacked. I didn’t have time to tell her I couldn’t give out patient details when the dog lady came back out. I decided not to get involved and let them two sort things out. All whilst this is going on, the owners of the labrador with OCD had been waiting patiently. I was waiting for them to start complaining and demanding to see a vet, but they didn’t, instead they went out for coffee whilst we worked on the Maltese. We ended up seeing them about an hour after their appointment time, and not once did they complain. Gods, I wish all of our clients were this understanding. The maltese, Tobi, is currently on a drip. He sustained two puncture wounds in his chest, a fractured canine tooth and another puncture wound on his muzzle. His x-rays didn’t show any critical damage like a punctured lung or ruptured diaphragm, but he did have a huge mass of air underneath his skin. Only time will tell what the extent of his injuries would be. However, he managed to jump off the x-ray table and take himself on a tour of the OR, so hopefully, he has no major injuries. I am never going to complain that it is quiet ever again.

A rather quiet day at work, thanks to the fact that it was raining and cold. We did have a golden retriever in for a bone biopsy on a rather suspicious looking lump on her leg. It is most definitely a tumor, but we won’t know for certain until we get the lab results back.
All 5 kittens are still alive and are doing great. I can’t believe that the little black and white boy is still hanging in there – one tough little kitten there. Poor Lilah (Momma cat) is going stir-crazy though, being stuck with the kittens 24/7. I let her have a little wander around as I got all the meals ready for our boarders. Then she didn’t want to go back to the “kids”. I had to carry her back to the isolation ward and place her in the cage. The kittens were happy to have Mum back though.

It has turned quite cold here. On Wednesday, it was 38C and now it is 14C and raining. I am back wearing flannel PJs and am seriously debating turning on my electric blanket tonight. It is crazy!

The baby magpie is still at work. It has a broken leg, so yesterday, we re-broke it and set it. The poor little thing is now wearing a lovely bandage with a paddle-pop stick as a splint. It was supposed to be picked up by a WIRES carer last night, but it was still there this afternoon. Everyone who goes through the back room somehow ends up hand-feeding it. The magpie really needs to go as Catriona is getting very attached to it, she was trying to name it this afternoon.
We also had 5 pound dogs come in for desexing yesterday, including two 4 month old shepherd crosses. They are very cute, but last night, they got diarrhea and managed to spread it all over the cage and themselves. I really did not enjoy cleaning their cage this morning, nor bathing them. Nothing like a cage full of dog shit at 8am to start your day.
I also did my very first consultation today – it was only a clipping a cat’s nails and putting Revolution on it, but I it did successfully and the clients were very impressed. Apparently, this cat attacks people who try to clip its nails, but she was a perfect angel for me. Go me! :)

A very slow day at work yesterday, which was only made interesting by the fact that we had a baby magpie in hospital with an injured right foot. I got the job of hand feeding it. I have never hand-fed a baby magpie so it was a case of trial and error before I worked out a method that worked. Since magpies are carnivores, I was feeding it tinned cat food and I absolutely reeked of it when I had finished. No wonder the magpie got all excited every time I walked past its cage. We also had in an injured rainbow lorikeet with head trauma, but he went home with a WIRES carer, or else it would have been on my hand-feeding list as well.

It is my beautiful boy’s second birthday today. I hope that this means that he has finished growing now. I was going to spoil him rotten this morning, but after he peed on the kitchen chairs, well, I just wasn’t in the spoiling mood. But I will still give him and Rory a pig’s ear before I go to work as a special treat.

A busy few days at work. For some reason, we are getting a lot of desexes coming in at the moment. I guess spring is in the air.

Coco, our clinic cat, is still with us, and is getting himself into trouble again. I went to feed him last night and couldn’t find him anywhere. The cat room is a fully enclosed room and there are only so many places he could be. I decided the fastest way to find him would be to call him, as he does come when he hears his name. So, I call out for him and I hear this meowing coming from the food cupboard. Somehow, Coco had gotten himself trapped inside the cupboard, and decided whilst he was there, he would rip open a couple of kitten sample bags to eat. I still haven’t a clue to how he managed to open the cupboard door, but I am going to have to find a way to tie the door shut.

Storm sent me The Poop Report. If you like toilet humour, or like me, have a condition that means you spend a lot of your life there, you will definitely be amused.

Had the joy of working two shifts back-to back, thanks to a change in rosters. I will now be working Wednesday mornings whilst Kerri, takes over Wednesday afternoons. This means I get to do more surgery and hands on stuff that gets done in the mornings.

When I got to work this morning, there were Liberal campaigners stationed at the entrance to the train station. I gave them a piece of my mind on the Liberal government, the banning of same-sex marriage and the war on Iraq. By the end of my rant, the poor guy who approached me was really regretting his decision.

We had all surgeries today, which was fun – two male dogs to desex and two rats to remove lumps from. I had never done surgery on a rat before, so having two in one day was a real learning experience. The first one had a thyroid tumor whilst the second had a benign mammary tumor. Things do not look good for rat no 1 as we weren’t able to fully remove the lump, pretty much all we did was get a biopsy and staple the rat back up.
I also got to do a clinical examination of a dog including heart rate, respiration rate and temperature. Never taken a dog’s temperature before as we don’t seem to do much of it when preparing for surgery. Fortunately, I didn’t screw things up, which is always good.

Coco, the cat, is still living at the clinic and has made himself at home. He loves being able to roam around the treatment room when things are quiet. His favourite trick is stealing two bags of promotional dog treats we got from a drug company and carrying them back to the cat room where he rips the bag apart and eats the treats. He was very proud of himself, until he got caught.